Game Recap

WINNIPEG – The University of Winnipeg Wesmen extended their Canada West regular season winning streak to five matches with a thrilling 3-2 (25-18, 19-25, 25-21, 19-25, 15-12) victory Friday night in Winnipeg against the fifth ranked Trinity Western University Spartans.

“We didn’t play well tonight. We are going to have to learn how to win these tough matches if we are going to advance further into the season then the second week in February. We have to stare good teams in the face and just straight up beat them at their own game or make them play our game. We didn’t execute at the level that we needed to to make them play ours and we didn’t play hard enough to beat them at theirs. Straight up we just got beat,” said TWU head coach Ben Josephson. “We have to respond tomorrow and we have to get a split on the road which is one of the arguments that you always try to make against good teams.”

The Wesmen ended their first half of the season in November with a sweep over Thompson Rivers and started the second half with a sweep last weekend in Saskatoon over the Huskies.

Winnipeg improves their record to 7-5. The Spartans fall to 8-5 in the close Canada West Conference standings.

Fourth year middle Justin Duff led the Wesmen with a match high 23 kills and four blocks. Andrew Town finished with 12 kills. First year left side Matt Schriemer added 10 kills. Marc Ross led the Wesmen with 14 digs.

The teams took turns in the early stages of the match showing their dominance. The hometown Wesmen won the first set in decisive fashion 25-18 but the Spartans responded taking the second set 25-19.

In the third set the Wesmen stormed out to an 8-3 lead at the first technical timeout, thanks to a 6-0 run to open the set. Winnipeg eventually went on to win the third set 25-21.

The Spartans forced a fifth and deciding set with an impressive 25-19 win in set number four. The Spartans finished the set with an attack percentage of .484.

Winnipeg held the lead for the majority of the fifth set and with the score at 11-10, Andrew Town put away three kills in a row to up the Wesmen lead to 14-10. Winnipeg would go on to win the final set 15-12.

Notes: In an even match between the two Canada West rivals, Winnipeg finished with an attack percentage of .237 to .217 for the Spartans. Winnipeg held a slim advantage in blocks at 8-7. The Spartans added six service aces compared to two for Winnipeg.

The Wesmen and Spartans will close out their two match series Saturday night at the Duckworth Centre. Match time is 6:00 p.m. (CST)